Planted Country

A handful of soil has more living organisms than people on planet Earth. Soil is the stomach of the earth - consuming, digesting, cycling nutrients and organisms. But what exactly is it, why do we need it and what can be done to look after it?

Our soil has been severely degraded so what can we do to improve it in the future? What role can farming play in regenerating the soil and ensuring the notion we only have 60 harvests left is disproved? What is regenerative farming and how realistic is it to deliver on a macro scale? Are chemicals and industrialised farming the only way to produce the volume of food?

Where once design styles were international movements, why are we now looking around us for design inspiration and what are the benefits? A new generation are motivated by environmental concerns and dwindling skills are looking to their local environment for inspiration. From surplus timber, to rammed earth, from weaving willow to earthenware bricks.

Our obsession with tidiness is depriving nature of the very thing it needs: habitat. Pesticides have been marketed and sold on an industrial scale. What is the relationship between ploughing and what is no dig farming? We can all make a difference by focusing on the small spaces we have while home composting, growing our own veg and minimising digging can play a vital role in our bid to get to net zero.

We’ve never farmed more land with fewer people but farmers remain the poor relations of UK industry as supermarkets squeeze margins with cheap foreign imports which damage the environment and undermine local economies. What will the new Environmental Land Management subsidies mean for local producers and what role does urban farming have to play in joining up the dots and ensuring high-quality local produce for local people?

Almost everything we eat relies on the soil in some way, shape or form. We eat a lot, but do we eat well and how can improving our soil by extension improve our health? What role does soil quality play in taste, nutrient value and longevity of produce? What are the benefits of looking after the soil and just why should we buy local?

Location: Verve wellness tent. This class focuses on sequences to open up the central channel, allowing the flow between heaven and earth’s energies to meet effortlessly. With these two energies mixing together, you will feel a more organised energy, spacious and clear.

Location: Walled garden. Learn how to eat more seasonally and sustainably whilst reducing your toxic load. We will discuss how to make better food choices to support our health and wellbeing whilst nurturing our environment and planetary health - to live more consciously, eat more intuitively and reconnect with the food we eat.

Location: Verve wellness tent. Guided Meditation to help you reset, recharge and re energise. You will learn to connect with the frequency of the natural world, which will leave you feeling calmer and refreshed for the weekend ahead.

Location: Walled garden. Michelle will draw on her experience of working with different sectors of society in connecting people to nature, how she did this, what are the benefits and why it’s so important. Passing on horticultural therapy practises that can benefit all.

Location: Verve wellness tent. Relax, restore and revive with the vibrations of planetary gongs and ancient and modern singing bowls and bells. This is a space to just be, with nothing to do but allow the sounds to inform every cell, every structure - a mid-morning recalibration!

Location: Walled garden. How can we produce foods safely and sustainably in a way that protects nature and supports our wellbeing? In this class, Carola will help answer this question by sharing how food miles affect the bioavailability of vital nutrients and why eating a specific variety of locally grown foods in season is essential for the absorption of nutrients.

Location: Wellness tent. Sustainable happiness teaches you that the best way to be happier and live better is to look after your wellbeing, whilst also looking after the planet. Humans feel better in nature and kindness increases our happy hormones. Be kind to nature.

Location: Walled garden. This class will take the form of a tour around the beautiful walled garden at Stourhead. Guided by Jemma, who has been a medical herbalist for 20 years, you will learn about the myriad of ways that many well known plants can support your health and wellbeing, and have the opportunity to pause and reflect on nature as a healer.

Location: Verve wellness tent. There is no inherent lack in the universe. Just as in nature where there is life upon life and a perfect self regulating, interconnected system, millennia in the making, so there is an intelligence beyond us in our bodies. This class allows you to bridge the gap to your abundance, your nature and flow, in the four main areas of your life with breath.

Location: Verve wellness tent. Leading children's mindfulness teacher, Lucy Stone, takes us out into nature to find our inner wild. Using objects from nature we can find all around us, Lucy will lead us through some simple breathing exercises, inspiring mindfulness activities and guided meditations. This class will help you pause, take some time to wonder and celebrate our natural world. Suitable for all the family.